Run Away and Join the Circus [IC]

[Avenger Assembled]

Fusion tightened her grip, squeezing with all four limbs simultaneously. Two arms began methodically pulling the mastermind's arms out of their sockets like pulling a child's toy apart, another around his midsection tightened so hard it began crushing his ribs, and the last wrapped firmly but gently around his neck, carefully not so tight it would actually impair his breathing. "Listen, bunky!" she hissed. "You better call your circus of freaks off right now, or you're going to be the chicken in my personal geek show!" She wasn't actually planning on snapping his neck, but she was pretty mad!

[trollthumper]

Cannonade pushed against the hard floor, breaking free of the elastic bonds of the trapeze artist. "Well, if Serenite is together," he said, "then I bet you're all gonna feel it when I grind my foot into your back." He pushed upward, but the trapeze artist danced under him just as quickly, dragging him back down.

"You doubt," she said. "And there is no way to convince. Such a shame. We must deal with you then." She aimed for the small of Cannonade's back, but the blow bounced right off.

"Heh," he said. "Deal harder."

[Supercape]

Rene felt the crushing weight on his shoulders lift for a moment of wonderful normality, until the mysterious force that had thrown him to the floor reversed, and threw him fourty feet in the air.

He barely held onto his lunch as he spun skywards, and stopped, floating in an uncomfortable and ungainly manner. He closed his eyes - which helped a little, and with his mind's eye focussed on the Juggler, painting another bolt of darker, angrier fire straight towards him.

As the fire writhed around his nemesis, Rene risked opening one eye to see the Circus seats below him. He held his nerve (hey, it wasn't as bad as that Magic Carper in Tunisia), and grasped his tunic: the mystic robe of mists, which with any luck could help float him gently to safety like a zephyr.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Not a big talker, huh?" Fusion taunted, her voice a hissing spit. "Well, maybe you just need a little ENCOURAGEMENT!" Still holding him with all four arms, she dropped to a kneeling position and brutally smashed the ringmaster against her knee, bending him so hard as his back popped that his head hit the floor and knocked him out cold. "Oh, for the love of...you candy-apple little mentalist!" She snapped back to her feet and threw the ringmaster at the juggler who was so bedeviling Rene, firing after him a vicious "Here, you want to juggle something? Juggle a broken collarbone!" And it hit, too, briefly staggering the psycho-kinetic. She was just about to move when she felt a wave pass over her, and her arms smashed against the ground, the suckers holding her up as she nearly fell. "Oh, you wanna go, honey!? Let's go!" she spat, turning all her attention on the circus performer who'd attacked her.

[Aoiroo]

It didn't take much but a few side steps to avoid the baton batalion, and move towards the fantastic elastic woman to try and score a hit. Though she managed a swift kick, it didn't seem to phase her at all. She would of tried for another hit but was a bit distracted when she caught sight of the flying old person.

"Ohh god."

Glancing at Joe, than the old person she decided to go with age before beauty and moved over to the stands to make sure his landing wasn't a crash one.

It was mid climb that she managed a glance over to see that Fusion had tossed Mr. Shadowy a sunder and into the juggler,

"Wow, I wonder if pissing off an octopus lady is covered by their HMO."

[trollthumper]

"Are you so blind?" the rope dancer said, swinging a titanic gust of wind Fusion's way, a gust she just managed to keep her footing against. "Serenite is more than one man."

"It is the potential of all," said the trapeze artist, putting a squeeze on Cannonade. "The dream at the heart of all things. The merger of --"

"Y'know, it's annoying enough you're holding me down," Cannonade said. "But I am really getting tired of this goddamn sales pitch." He reared his head up, striking the distracted trapeze artist against the chin. He heard the crunch of bone, and felt his bonds relax.

"Well, that's a relief," he said, pulling himself up off the floor and shaking the trapeze artist off. ""Don't suppose anyone else of you guys felt that? What with you being one and all?" Under his breath, he muttered, "Worth a shot."

[Aoiroo]

When Carrie confirmed that the old man wasn't coming down at a painful speed she turned back at Joe glad he got the rubber woman off of his back,

"Well if they didn't feel that, at least two of them felt that one."

She pointed over at the Juggler and Ringmaster before taking a few steps forward. It only took a couple of strides and a quick jump before her foot collided with the head of the first performer. There were down in a second, the next barely had time to react as Carrie shoved her fist into his gut. The next might of been trying to attack but she grabbed him and pulled him into a throw sending him into the last performer and knocking them both out.

Letting out a breath she looked over at Joe and said,

"By the way, I think you're missing something Joe."

She tapped on her head as she stepped over the falling bodies and over all give the area a wide berth in case Fusion was going to start throwing people again.

[Supercape]

Once again, Rene felt the crushing forces on his body wane, and this time they did not reappear. He would have plummeted to the ground were it not for the robe of mists he wore, which let him glide like a zephyr. Still incandescent with his adversary, Rene summoned forth an equally furious bolt of fire from the ceiling of the circus that arced towards the Juggler, sweeping past him and circling round.

A bit reckless of me... he noted.

He was perhaps distracted not so much by his predicament but by the words of the performers. Or, he wondered... one performer. Was it a group mind?

[Avenger Assembled]

Casting her eyes around for a target, Fusion decided to repeat the trick she'd used on the juggler. "Listen, honey, the only kind of French mind-bending I'm interested in comes out of a bottle of champagne!" She lashed an ankle out and entangled the tightrope walker by the ankle, 'cracking the whip' with her own body as she whipped the high-walker around and hurled him at the rope dancer. "Why don't we see how your hive mind works when I break all your heads!?" She said a bad word when she missed entirely, but it was at least satisfying when her target smacked head first into the far wall. "Or maybe I'll just toss you around myself!"

[trollthumper]

Cannonade finally realized Silhouette's words when he couldn't feel the steel of his helm. Oops, he thought as he surveilled the audience; luckily, they still all seemed to be in a post-hypnotic stupor. Quickly, he reached under his jacket, pulling out the component parts of his helm and sliding them together. Behind him, the Trapeze Artist slithered forward, reaching for his ankle as he slid the pieces together.

"Why do you hide yourself?" she asked. "Openness is beauty. Exult in your power. Claim it and --"

Cannonade stomped on her hand as he slid the helmet on, causing her to draw back and bellow in pain. "Yeah, well, we've all gotta have our secrets," he said. "Don't you agree?" He turned back to the stage... only to see a wrought-iron horse lifted up on mighty currents of air, charging right towards him.

"Aw, cr--"

The horse collided with such force, it was a wonder the helmet didn't split. Cannonade stumbled about, trying to regain his bearings. Well, at least I got it on...

[Aoiroo]

Carrie moved back a bit as the carriage came through even though it wasn't aimed at her. Glancing around she found the only mind controlled fighter left was the rope dancer who was still up on the platform.

"Guess Fusion missed one."

With a few strides she made her way and climbed up to get onto equal ground with the rope dancer who had that same strange look as everyone else being controlled. That alone put Carrie off a bit, but it didn't stop her from starting from her position to a run knocking into the girl with a sharp shoulder like a quarterback. It worked out well since they were about the same size and the girl pretty much had the wind knocked out of her.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Listen, you little circus geeks," spat Fusion. "I've had it up to here with your stupid little parlor tricks and your obnoxious chanting about your hive mind! I'm going to knock some sense into you if I have to crack your heads together like coconuts!" She jumped up, onto the high wires above, and lashed out with wetly whipping tentacles of black, grabbing the rope dancer who'd bedeviled her by the ankles and simply hurling the woman at that obnoxious trapeze artist, sending them both cascading to the floor with bone-cracking thumps. "Hey! Cannonade! Knock that one out of the park!"

[trollthumper]

The Rope Dancer pulled herself up, but was reeling on her feet. "You can't understand!" she yelled. "You can never! Serenite is real! Serenite is -- "

"Closed for business." Cannonade brought his steel toed boot up into the rope dancer's gut -- by now, the rules of chivalry had been completely abandoned. She fell to the ground and didn't get up. He cast his gaze around the stadium floor. "Don't suppose they're in the stage hands, huh?"

His answer came with a collective groan. The audience behind him was starting to wake up from their trance, grasping their heads and trying to regain their purchase on the events of the last few minutes. Pretty soon, the groans gave way to hushed whispers -- and in time, to applause.

Cannonade didn't know what else to do. He simply took a bow.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie was happy to move off the platform and out of the way as Fusion tossed another performer like she was a baseball. Witty banter from Cannonade aside, Carrie was more concerned as she realized the audience was coming too. Moving quickly she slipped under the curtian and into the shadow just out of sight and waited out the applause. If all went well she could probably just slip out with the crowds and no one would question the skinny brunnette moving away from the stage.

[Supercape]

Rene dusted himself off and gave a nasty look at his downed opponent.

"L'exposition est plus, Monsieur".

He stretched himself, and seeing the other heroes, suddenly grabbed his hip and made a show of pain "oh dear, I'm too old for this you know!" he moaned theatrically, closing his eyes with the exaggerated pain, and peeking out of the slit of one to see who was watching.

Anyway, the show was indeed over.

He didn't recognise the other heroes personally, although he read newspapers of course - and he could place Fusion and Cannonade. Wasn't there someone else who had joined in the fight?

"Pleased, to meet you" he introduced himself. "Rene deSaens. Helpless old man. " he winked.

[Avenger Assembled]

With the threat defeated, the tentacled wonder disappeared into the darkness of the circus. Normally Fusion might have stopped to introduce herself, but not when her family was around and might still be in peril. Slipping away from the others invisibly, she retracted her costume back into her dress, stepping out into the night where she'd safely deposited her husband and daughter in the alley outside. When she saw them waking up, Joan smiled. Being a hero was great, but having her family safe and sound was all she needed. "Are you all right?" she asked. Charlie and Lois were experienced with this sort of thing, as much as anyone could be, and her husband quickly reassured her that everything was fine.

For her part, though, Lois didn't sound so convinced. She put her thick glasses on and got in her mother's face, or as close as she could, anyway. Lois showed signs of inheriting her mother's height, but she hadn't yet had her growth spurt. "Why does this always happen when we go out with you?!" She put her hands on her hips, a posture that she'd actually copied from her mom in her own anger. "Every time we go somewhere nice together, somebody bad always attacks!"

"Honey! That's not true!" Joan fired back, her voice rising with the heat that only family members got. "What about that time in Tokyo, with the fish-monsters from beyond the sea?"

"That doesn't count! That was when you tried to make stupid Hachiman teach me how to use a sword! That was an awful day!" She was near tears, a little girl on the edge of adolescence. "Why do bad things always happen around you, Mom?"

[trollthumper]

In the chaos afterwards, Cannonade didn't have as easy an escape as Fusion. There had been a press box at the event gathering photos for the alt-weeklies and the online version of the Ledger... so once the mind control snapped, they were the first ones to take photos. He'd been mobbed once they'd made their way out of the press box, and after a few dozen Q&A sessions that kept retreading the same territory, he finally managed to make his way to the parking lot. After making sure no stray photographers had followed, he found Andy waiting.

"You okay?"

"Aside from being held down by a human rubber band, yeah, I'm good."

"This... isn't gonna be a regular thing?... Sorry, that was a dick thing to say. It would've happened anyway, just --"

"It won't. Are mom and dad okay?"

"Yeah. They're... they're actually kinda proud, you know? You got in there, and..." Andy smiled. "Hey, you kicked ass. Mom's gonna see if she can get a refund on the tickets. If she does, we're just gonna go to dinner tomorrow. She insists you come."

"Well, as long as The Crime League's got other plans... wouldn't miss it for the world."